Affricate:a sound produced by a stop closure followed immediately by a slow release (ch, j) Allomorph:an alternative phonetic form of a morpheme ( /s/, /z/, /ez/) are forms of the plural morpheme in cats, dogs, and kisses. Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce morpheme in different contexts Alveolar:a sound produced by raising the tongue to the alveolar ridge (s, t, n) Alveopalatal:a sound whose place of articulation is the hard palate immediately behind the alveolar ridge Bilabial:a sound articulated by bringing both lips together (m) Bound Morpheme:a morpheme that must be attached to other morphemes such as -ly, -ed, pre-. Bound morphemes are affixes: prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes and some roots such as the morpheme (cran) in cranberry Code-switching:the movement back and forth between two languages within the same sentence or conversation Complementary Distribution:phonemes can never occur in the same phonetic environment Connotation:the affective meaning associated with a word. (certain words reflect attitudes, emotions, value judgements, etc.) Continuants:sounds in which there is no stoppage in the oral tract (s) Denotation:the referential meaning of a word or expression Derivational Morpheme:a morphemes added to a stem or root to form a new stem or word. Sometimes this changes the word's syntactic category (-er added to the verb, paint, makes it a noun, painter) Digraph:two letter used to represent a single sound (gh represents [f] in enough) Dipthong:vowel glides (bout, boy) Free Morpheme:a single morpheme that constitutes a word. (boy, gentle, man) Fricatives:in the production of some continuants, the airflow is so severely obstructed that it causes friction (f, v, s, z, th) Front vowel:vowel sounds in which the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth (i) Function word:a word that does not have a clear lexical meaning but has a grammatical function (conjunctions, prepositions, articles, auxiliaries--CLOSED class) Glides:the sounds [j] and [w], the initial sounds of you [ju] and woo [wu] are produced with little or no obstruction of the air stream in the mouth. They are always preceded or followed directly by a vowel. The tongue moves rapidly in a gliding fasion either toward or away from the neighboring vowel Glottal stop:a sound produced with constriction at the glottis, when the air is stopped completely at the glottis by tightly closed vocal cords (g) Glottis:the opening between the vocal cords Grammatical Morpheme:a function word or bound morpheme required by syntactic rules (he wantS TO go) Implosives:sounds produced with an ingressive air stream that involves movement of the glottis Inflectional Morpheme:a bound grammatical morpheme that is affixed to a word according to rules of syntax (-s suffix on third person singular) Labial:a sound articulated at the lips (b, f) Labio-dental:a sound produced by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth (v) Labio-velar:a sound articulated by simultaneously raising the back of the tongue toward the velum and rounding the lips (r, w) Lax vowel:short vowel produced with little tension in the vocal cords (pUt) Lexicon:the component of grammar containing speaker's knowledge about morphemes and words; a speaker's mental dictionary of words Minimal pair:two or more words that are identical except for one phoneme that occurs in the same position (pet, bet) Morpheme:the smallest unit of linguistic meaning or function Morphology:the study of the structure of words; the component of the grammar that includes the rules of word formation Nasal sound:speech sound produced with an open nasal passage (lowered velum) permitting air to pass through the nose as well as the mouth (m) Natural class:a class of sounds characterized by a phonetic property or feature that pertains to all members of the set (class of stops) Neurolinguistics:the branch of linguistics concerned with the brain mechanisms that underlie the acquisition and use of language Nomenclature:a system of words used in a particular discipline Open class:the class of lexical content words: a category of words that commonly add new words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs--constitute the major part of the vocabulary) Palatal:a sound produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate (t, d) Phonology:the sound system of a language; the component of a grammar that includes the inventory of sounds (phonetic and phonemic units) and rules for their combination and pronunciation Place of articulation:the part of the vocal tract at which constriction occurs during the production of most consonants Plosives:nonnasal or oral stops where the air that is blocked in the mouth explodes when the closure is released (p, b, d, t, g) Pragmatics:the study of how context and situation affect meaning Psycholinguistics:concerned with linguistic performance, language acquisition, and speech production and comprehension Semantics:the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, and sentences Sociolinguistics:concerned with linguistic performance within social contexts Stops:the air stream may be completely stopped or just partially obstructed (t) Syntax:the rules of sentence formation Uvular:a sound produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula Velar:a sound produced by raising the back part of the tongue to the soft palate of velum Voiced sound:speech sound produced with vibrating vocal cords Voiceless sound:speech sound produced with open, nonvibrating vocal cords
Anna Costa
Graduate Assistant
Middle Tennessee State University
Certified Pre-K teacher, working on ESL endorsement aec2y@mtmail.mtsu.edu
This page is designed to help define some important linguistic terms. Want to study these terms? Check out these flashcards I created using Quizlet: http://quizlet.com/4697188/praxis-study-flash-cards/
LANGUAGE TERMS
Affricate: a sound produced by a stop closure followed immediately by a slow release (ch, j)
Allomorph: an alternative phonetic form of a morpheme ( /s/, /z/, /ez/) are forms of the plural morpheme in cats, dogs, and kisses. Knowledge of phonology determines how we pronounce morpheme in different contexts
Alveolar: a sound produced by raising the tongue to the alveolar ridge (s, t, n)
Alveopalatal: a sound whose place of articulation is the hard palate immediately behind the alveolar ridge
Bilabial: a sound articulated by bringing both lips together (m)
Bound Morpheme: a morpheme that must be attached to other morphemes such as -ly, -ed, pre-. Bound morphemes are affixes: prefixes, suffixes, infixes, circumfixes and some roots such as the morpheme (cran) in cranberry
Code-switching: the movement back and forth between two languages within the same sentence or conversation
Complementary Distribution: phonemes can never occur in the same phonetic environment
Connotation: the affective meaning associated with a word. (certain words reflect attitudes, emotions, value judgements, etc.)
Continuants: sounds in which there is no stoppage in the oral tract (s)
Denotation: the referential meaning of a word or expression
Derivational Morpheme: a morphemes added to a stem or root to form a new stem or word. Sometimes this changes the word's syntactic category (-er added to the verb, paint, makes it a noun, painter)
Digraph: two letter used to represent a single sound (gh represents [f] in enough)
Dipthong: vowel glides (bout, boy)
Free Morpheme: a single morpheme that constitutes a word. (boy, gentle, man)
Fricatives: in the production of some continuants, the airflow is so severely obstructed that it causes friction (f, v, s, z, th)
Front vowel: vowel sounds in which the tongue is positioned forward in the mouth (i)
Function word: a word that does not have a clear lexical meaning but has a grammatical function (conjunctions, prepositions, articles, auxiliaries--CLOSED class)
Glides: the sounds [j] and [w], the initial sounds of you [ju] and woo [wu] are produced with little or no obstruction of the air stream in the mouth. They are always preceded or followed directly by a vowel. The tongue moves rapidly in a gliding
fasion either toward or away from the neighboring vowel
Glottal stop: a sound produced with constriction at the glottis, when the air is stopped completely at the glottis by tightly closed vocal cords (g)
Glottis: the opening between the vocal cords
Grammatical Morpheme: a function word or bound morpheme required by syntactic rules (he wantS TO go)
Implosives: sounds produced with an ingressive air stream that involves movement of the glottis
Inflectional Morpheme: a bound grammatical morpheme that is affixed to a word according to rules of syntax (-s suffix on third person singular)
Labial: a sound articulated at the lips (b, f)
Labio-dental: a sound produced by touching the bottom lip to the upper teeth (v)
Labio-velar: a sound articulated by simultaneously raising the back of the tongue toward the velum and rounding the lips (r, w)
Lax vowel: short vowel produced with little tension in the vocal cords (pUt)
Lexicon: the component of grammar containing speaker's knowledge about morphemes and words; a speaker's mental dictionary of words
Minimal pair: two or more words that are identical except for one phoneme that occurs in the same position (pet, bet)
Morpheme: the smallest unit of linguistic meaning or function
Morphology: the study of the structure of words; the component of the grammar that includes the rules of word formation
Nasal sound: speech sound produced with an open nasal passage (lowered velum) permitting air to pass through the nose as well as the mouth (m)
Natural class: a class of sounds characterized by a phonetic property or feature that pertains to all members of the set (class of stops)
Neurolinguistics: the branch of linguistics concerned with the brain mechanisms that underlie the acquisition and use of language
Nomenclature: a system of words used in a particular discipline
Open class: the class of lexical content words: a category of words that commonly add new words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs--constitute the major part of the vocabulary)
Palatal: a sound produced by raising the front part of the tongue to the palate (t, d)
Phonology: the sound system of a language; the component of a grammar that includes the inventory of sounds (phonetic and phonemic units) and rules for their combination and pronunciation
Place of articulation: the part of the vocal tract at which constriction occurs during the production of most consonants
Plosives: nonnasal or oral stops where the air that is blocked in the mouth explodes when the closure is released (p, b, d, t, g)
Pragmatics: the study of how context and situation affect meaning
Psycholinguistics: concerned with linguistic performance, language acquisition, and speech production and comprehension
Semantics: the study of the linguistic meaning of morphemes, words, and sentences
Sociolinguistics: concerned with linguistic performance within social contexts
Stops: the air stream may be completely stopped or just partially obstructed (t)
Syntax: the rules of sentence formation
Uvular: a sound produced by raising the back of the tongue to the uvula
Velar: a sound produced by raising the back part of the tongue to the soft palate of velum
Voiced sound: speech sound produced with vibrating vocal cords
Voiceless sound: speech sound produced with open, nonvibrating vocal cords
Anna Costa
Graduate Assistant
Middle Tennessee State University
Certified Pre-K teacher, working on ESL endorsement
aec2y@mtmail.mtsu.edu